Chastity detached her whip from her waist. Flicking it out, she caught a bit of concrete. Cassie stepped forward, and set her boot down on it, to help keep it from slipping.

The climb wasn’t too bad, and the grit from earlier helped—it seemed like Rain had applied some too. Chastity took her friend’s hand for the last big step.

Rain used the rope to haul himself forward, pausing twice to use his power and adjust his grip while suspended in space.

Cassie touched Chastity’s arm, and Chastity turned away from watching Rain.

Cassie held out her arms, the universal signal for a hug. Obediently, Chastity hugged her friend.

“What’s that about?” Chastity asked, after she pulled away.

“Your eyes looked sad,” Cassie said. “What’s going on?”

There was a momentary glance in Rain’s direction. Chastity shook her head in response.

No, not him. He’s not why.

“What do you need?” Cassie asked.

“I—” she almost lied. “A shower. Clean clothes. I hate being dirty.”

Cassie gave her arm a squeeze, then joined Chastity in helping Rain make it over the upper edge of the slope. They had more bags waiting. They’d taken turns as spotter, because those were the rules. One person keeping an eye and ear out for collapses and problems as the other two investigated apartments and took the essentials.

They made their way down the rubble of fallen buildings. Toward the center of the block was a set of tents, including a tent over a series of tables and benches, an administration area for signup, a place with supplies, another place consolidating and sorting stuff.

Rain lifted some of the bags onto the table by the sorting bench. He kept the thing of glass, then dug a few things out of the big plastic bag of computer components. Chastity took out the laptop, then signed the papers necessary to request it.

The way this worked, people could pay for a certain building or part of a building. They were then free to go through the ruins, always with spotters, and with rules. The coordinating areas would buy stuff, but if they wanted to keep stuff, there were rules about requesting it, giving the original owners some rights, especially for anything that held data or anything with possible sentimental value.

If the owner didn’t want the laptop, the contents would be backed up on a major server as a just-in-case, and then it would be sent to Chastity.

Chastity bent down to pet Doon, giving him scratches behind the ears. He tried to lick her face, and she fended it off.

“That’ll be it for us. We only got to half the building,” Rain said.

“What?” Chastity asked, raising her head. Doon took the opportunity to lick the side of her face. “There’s still the rest of the day, and the building.”